Friday, June 23, 2017

Rev. Hawkins Speaks out on the Senate Health Care Bill

On
yesterday, the Senate released its version of the Affordable Care Act replacement, which was prepared behind closed doors by just 13 Senators. It is called
the Better Care Reconciliation Act, patterned after the House American Health
Care Act. This is a greatly flawed bill rushed with the intent of getting it
passed before there is a thorough examination of its contents. Like the House
bill which passed in May, the Senate version would take this
nation back to the horrors before the Affordable Care Act. It would create
enormous tax breaks for the wealthy, roll back Medicaid expansion in 31 states,
block Planned Parenthood funding for one year, remove the requirement for
Medicaid to coverage for mental health care, and end the coverage mandate for
both individuals and employers. We can expect that passage of this bill would result
in loss of healthcare coverage for millions of people.

This
is a hard-hearted effort on the part of the Republican leadership to take
control of the health care conversation and determine policy. It is an attempt
to take the name of President Obama from healthcare reform and claim for
themselves that legacy. But therein they will create for themselves a legacy
of doing more harm than good. They will reduce greatly the number of people who
have health coverage and give the power of life and death back to the insurance
companies.

Senator
Chuck Schumer said that this bill is “a wolf in sheep’s clothing with sharper
teeth than the House bill. This bill will result in higher costs, less care and
millions of Americans will lose their health insurance, particularly through
Medicaid.”

Is
this who we are as a nation? Have we been reduced to a country wherein the vast
majority of our citizens are barely making it off of the scraps of the wealthy
and politically powerful? Do we not have any compassion left for the unemployed
poor, the working poor, the devastated poor? It is not as if we don’t have the
means or the ability to strengthen the Affordable Care Act: it is simply that
we don’t have the will.

Members
of ADAPT staged
a sit-in at Senator Mitch McConnell’s office yesterday to protest the
Senate bill, after it was clear that politicians were not going to listen to the
hundreds of thousands of people who have written letters, made calls and met
with legislators to ask that their healthcare be protected. This group of people
with disabilities, many of whom use wheelchairs, let their voices be heard loud
and clear challenging this bill which will permanently damage lives. We respect
the risk they took, and seek to follow the leadership of those who will be most
greatly impacted by the loss of healthcare. ADAPT organizer Bruce Darling said
that the Republican bill will "greatly reduce access to medical care and
home and community based service for elderly and disabled Americans who will
either die or be forced into institutions. Our lives and liberty shouldn't be
stolen to give a tax break to the wealthy. That's truly un-American."

As
Presbyterians we have always cared for others. The 218th General
Assembly re-affirmed:

“Jesus Christ, who has reconciled us
to God, healed all kinds of sickness (Mt. 4:23, par) as a sign of God’s rule. Isaiah
speaks God’s word to say “No more shall there be … an infant that lives but a
few days, or an old person who does not live out a lifetime” (Isa. 65:20a). We, as Reformed Christians, bear witness to
Jesus Christ in word, but also in deed.

As followers of our Great Physician
Jesus, we have a moral imperative to work to assure that everyone has full
access to health care.”

It
is time that we take that concern to a higher level of involvement and action.
The prophetic voice of the church, both collectively and individually, must be
lifted high to oppose this bill. We must let our members of Congress know who
outraged we are by this action. It is not too late. There is still a process
which must be followed before it becomes law. Organize a letter writing campaign
in your church, ask tough questions at your member’s town hall meeting,
encourage your pastor to speak out, challenge your Session to overture your
presbytery to make a statement. But first and foremost, begin and end with a
prayer for the intervention of God’s Holy Spirit to soften the hearts to soften
with compassion for the “least of these our brothers and sisters.”

Call
your Senators, especially in key states where they are undecided:

About Me

The Presbyterian Office of Public Witness is the public policy information and advocacy office of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). Its task is to advocate, and help the church to advocate, the social witness perspectives and policies of the Presbyterian General Assembly. The church has a long history of applying these biblically and theologically-based insights to issues that affect the public — maintaining a public policy ministry in the nation's capital since 1946.
Reformed theology teaches that because a sovereign God is at work in all the world, the church and Christian citizens should be concerned about public policy. In addition, Presbyterian forefather John Calvin wrote, "Civil magistry is a calling not only holy and legitimate, but by far the most sacred and honorable in human life."